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Abstract:
Reaction time (RT) is an index of the processing ability of
central nervous system and a simple means of determining
sensory-motor performance. It has been reported that yoga training
improves human performance including central neural processing.
Earlier studies from our laboratories have shown that yoga
training produces a significant decrease in visual reaction time (VRT)
and auditory reaction time (ART). The present work was planned to
determine if mukh bhastrika (a yogic technique in which breath is
actively blasted out in ‘whooshes’ following a deep
inspiration) has any effect on central neural processing by
studying its effect on RT. 22 healthy schoolboys who were practicing
yoga for the past three months were recruited for the
present study. VRT and ART were recorded before and after nine
rounds of mukh bhastrika. Mukh bhastrika produced a significant
(P<0.01) decrease in VRT as well as ART. A decrease in RT
indicates an improved sensory-motor performance and enhanced
processing ability of central nervous system. This may be due to
greater arousal, faster rate of information processing, improved
concentration and/ or an ability to ignore extraneous stimuli.
This is of applied value in situations requiring faster reactivity
such as sports, machine operation, race driving and specialized surgery. It may also be of value to train mentally retarded
children and older sports persons who have prolonged RT.

The physiological and psychological benefits of yoga have been
demonstrated in several studies (1, 2, 3, 4). These studies have shown
that regular practice of yoga leads to improvement in physiological
functions and human performance. Benefits have been reported in both
peripheral nerve function (5) as well as central neuronal processing (1,
6, 7). Reaction time (RT) is an indirect index of the processing ability
of central nervous system and a simple means of determining sensory-motor
association and performance (8). RT involves central neural mechanisms and
its study is of physiological interest. It is a sensitive and reproducible
test and its measurement can be done with simple apparatus and set up.
Determination of RT has important implications in sports physiology (9)
and the performance of an athlete is dependent on the duration of RT. It
is an index of cortical arousal (6) and a decrease in it indicates an
improved sensory motor performance and an enhanced processing ability of
the central nervous system. It has been found that changes in breathing
period produced by voluntary control of inspiration are significantly
correlated to changes in RT (10). Physical conditioning exercises have
been shown to shorten visual reaction time (VRT) as well as auditory
reaction time (ART) (11). Previous studies on yoga have shown that regular
practice of yoga can significantly decrease VRT and ART (1, 6). It has
also been suggested that RT can be used as a simple and objective method
to determine the beneficial effects of yoga training (1, 6). In an earlier
study done in our laboratories, mukh bhastrika, the bellows type breathing
was one of the yogic practices performed by the subjects. Mukh bhastrika
is a yogic technique in which the breath is actively blasted out in
multiple ‘whooshes’ with forced abdominal contractions (12). Agnisar
and bhastrika (yogic techniques that employ similar forceful abdominal
contractions) have been shown to produce central neuronal activation (13,
14). As mukh bhastrika may have a central activating role, we planned this
study to determine the acute effect of mukh bhastrika on VRT and ART. The
study was conducted on yoga-trained subjects because they could perform
mukh bhastrika properly and readily volunteered for the study.

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